Illuminated sign.



L. R. L W. K. WILLY a; W. s. II'oUGII, JR.

' ILLUMINATED SIGN.

APPLICATION FILED APB. 11.1908. i l 926,796, Patented July 6, 1909.

FIG-.2,

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l 20 'd I 'IIIIII FIG;

FIGS.

' Hector 2`,havin an annular parabolic reflect- UNITED,,s'IATEs PATELQIT OFFICE. n

noY R; WILEY, WALLACE K. WILEY, AND' WILLIAM s. noUGII, Ja., oF sT. cATHERINEs;

CANAD.

ILLUMINATED SIGN. f

No. 926,796. specification of Application led April 11,

WALLACE K. YWILEY, and WILLIAM S.

HoGH, Jr., citizens of the United States of America, andresidents of St. Catherines, in the'county of Lincoln, Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented certain new andl useful Improvements in Illuminated Signs, of which the following is a specification. Our invention relates to a device for exhibiting illuminated letters, numerals, and' other characters composing an advertising or other kindA of si v The leading ohlects of the inventionv are to secure a sign which is easily visible at lon distances, as Well as atV short ran e inboth directions; to obtain a brilliant e ect atthe sides of the characters, both da and night; to build different characters of t e same por-. tions; to dispense with all lenses, which involve bulk and weight to an objectionable i extent; and to improvethe details of construction. Without'describing the various lscopes of lnvention, which are attended to in the `.claim hereinafter annexed, our statement'f invention is as follows z-The invention ing volves a two-way slgn, a raised translucent -character being on each sidefand having 30 sloping sides, which are formed with prismaticelevations; a common source of h ht,

arabolic reflectors locate re' s ectivelyvbehmd the characters for directin the rays of light in arallel directions and perpendicular to the aces of the characters, ut in various directions from vthe sloping sides. f

Figure 1 is a vertical` section of the device. Fig. 2 is a front elevation. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a modification.. Fig'. 4' is a front elevation of the letter-portion of Fig. 3.

I Fig. 5 is an elevation of another letter built -up 'of sonic of the sections'. l

Like characters represent like parts.. The device consists of-alamp .1, .and a reingsurface 3. mportance 1s attached to the annular lreflector 2. By uslng such, the

I weight and bulk of the device are greatly reduced, in Acom a on with the form shown in Fi .3. The cpt horizontallyis only about f ha andless light is lost by useless' reflections inside ofthe device.'` The characters need not necessarily be .the round kind, be-

Lettors Patent. Patented July 6, 1909.

190s.` seriglNo. 426,612.

cause a cross'piece, as 6b` inthe lletter H, would have the direct rays of the lamp 1. A plate 4.1s`transverse to the axisfof' the re ector and fastened to the front thereof, and

having a letter-shaped opening, over which is ma glass character 5, in this instance, in the vshape of the letter O, having a iange F for attaching the letter-O to the plate 4 by using cement. Any letter maybe 1n front, of such afparabolic reflector, but of course, it is more e cient to use this annular reflector for round letters like C, D, G, O, Q, and U. On

the left side the parts are repeated at 5', 8,

3` &c. 'The lamp 1 is at the common focus of the two ,refiectorsr We found that the sides 7, if plane, of the lletters do not light upv very much, as each light ray 4from the reflector 3,l struckgthe inner surface of the sloping side 7, so obliquely, as to be largely reilectedfrom, instead of" being transmitted sufficiently through the glass. It. occurred to us to provide-pmsmatic elevations on the inner surface, as indicated at 7 inFig. 1 The rays R are indicated by dots and dashes, as being re` fracted and transmitted effectively through the glass, giving the brilliant appearance of cut glass. fracting points are not laid out mathematically, as 1t is intended only to illustrate the general effects of the glass upon the direction' of the prays. .Theprlnciple of such a letter therefore, consists of the face 8, of the letter The angles ofthe raysat the rehaving sloping sidesV rovided with prismatic elevations 7 on t e inner surface'. rlhe prismatic elevations 7 may be provided also on the'fajces/of the characters. The outer surfaces of the characters could at the same time beso sha ed that the parallelism-of the Lrays would st` ybe reserve Or, the modificationI could inc ude the rays not being .maintained parallel. Whether' the elevations 7 are over all or arts of the surfaces, We'have found that the etters not only have .a brilliant effect at night froInthe light Within; but inthe day time, by the action of sunl' ht, the letters look much as if made of smal mirrors. These elevations also cut down the blurrin effect, which occurs vsome- ,what withoutr lt em. The blurring mendistance, andl is caused probably by the spreading' of the rays 'and by stra ra s d which have notbeen/Ihade parallel, by the of the intended arallel rays would due to In Fig. 3 is shown a practically complete 5 parabolic surface 31.

The glass character, 5, is the letter H, built up of equally sized sections, 6, 68,6", 6c, and 6?, fastened to the opening in the plate. 4a. The same pieces may be used for making several other letters, as for example the letter T as in Fig. 5.- Each section has anges F, Which may be cemented to the plate 4a, on the inner side. The 'sections 6, 6a, 6b, &c. of the characters need'not necessarily Vbe of the same size, nor of the same shape. When of the same size, they'may be ut together more conveniently to form difierent letters of the same sections as used in other letters. Thus the 'sections shown in the letter H in Fig. 4, may be put in any relative order so lon as they form another letter, as T in Fig. 5. n any case, the sections consist each of glass having a cross section consisting of a face, and two/sides sloping to the 25 face toward each other.

We claim as our invention:

In an illuminated sign, the combination of an opa ue plate having an opening therein of the s ape of a character, a parabolic reector Whose major axis is at right angles to said plate, a translucent character in said o ening and having` a portionv of its face, Willich is to transmit the l1 ht, parallel to said plate, walls having latera faces for transmitting light, slo ingfrom said plate toward each 35 other to sai rst named face, a source of light being located at the focus of said reflector, and prismatic elevations formed on the inner surfaces of the lateral Walls.

ROY R. WILEY. WALLACE K. WILEY. WILLIAM S. HOUGH, JR.

yWitnesses to the signatures of 'Roy R.

`Wile'y and Wallace K. Wiley:

A. W. MARQUIS, M. GRoBB. r

v'Witnesses to the signature of William S. Hough, Jr.:

v WM. PIERCE,

H. WILLIAMS. 

